Quote:
Originally Posted by mlewis78
I don't think that getting a vaccine appointment is a matter of being tech savvy. It's more persistence, patience and the willingness to go through several applications, most of which are fruitless. If you are used to going online and have ever typed messages, it's filling out forms to show you are either old enough or fit other high-risk qualifications, then moving on from seeing the message "you should get an appointment" and then seeing most times, "no appointments available." Refresh screen, try again or wait a few hours or days and try again. I did take at least a week off in the middle of four weeks that I tried before getting appointments. I thought I'd give them time to get more vaccine, since they had run out early on in New York.
If you never use computers, that's another thing. But I'm 69, worked as a word processing operator before I retired, and many of the IT and operator people I worked with were old than I was.
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Call it what you will, but for elderly people who are greatly challenged sending a text message, much less attaching a photo to a message, it is a daunting task.
Some states and counties have made the process less confusing than others. Many states and counties have convoluted, poorly designed sets of web pages that make little sense and keep redirecting the user to other pages. In my state and county the system has been a huge fiasco. Those lucky enough to find a doctor whose practice can give them the vaccination are lucky, but there are very few of those.
The Feds have one set of criteria. The states have their own modified sets of criteria. The counties/cities have modified the criteria even further. If an elderly person is highly challenged to send a simple text message with a photo, and many are, they are going to be overwhelmed by the online processes they must go through to set up an appointment for a vaccination. Yes, they can use the telephone, but from the news reports and buzz about town and on social media, the chances of setting up an appointment via a telephone call is way lower than doing so via websites.